The Mystery of the Missing Zeus Plugs
by Noofle
Summary: The Doctor finds his Zeus plugs missing and embarks on a search to find the missing plugs. Will he find them? What happens if he does? And is Sarah Jane not a morning person? All, and more, shall be revealed within. Read on to find out more!


For the Doctor, it was a wonderful day to be alive. The TARDIS was actually working properly for once, and they hadn't encountered one single hostile alien for a whole week. Yes, it was indeed a wonderful day.

After popping one more jellybaby in his mouth, and slinging his scarf over his shoulder, the Doctor decided that a little bit of tinkering was in order. Of all the rooms in the TARDIS, the workshop was one of the Time Lord's favourite rooms. It had everything he needed to build random electronic devices, or blow up those pesky cockroaches that somehow managed to get into his beautiful time ship.

He started to hum a little ditty while he retrieved various pieces of metal and tools from the shelving arrayed around the hexagonal room. It wasn't long before he noticed that something was missing.

"Zeus plugs," he exclaimed, "where are my Zeus plugs? They are always going missing."

A quick check of his coat pockets revealed nothing. Where had they gone? He remembered putting them in his trouser pockets only this morning. He had to think through this logically. What had he done this morning?

The library, of course! He had gone to the library after breakfast with Harry and Sarah. With a jubilant smile on his face, the Doctor picked up his skirts, in a metaphorical sense, and headed for the library.

After getting lost exactly 5.243 times (he took a wrong turn but then discovered it was a shortcut he had never discovered before), the Doctor arrived in the TARDIS library, and immediately lay about for what he was worth. Soon, the whole room was littered with binders and books, and not a few bookcases that had been knocked over during his over-enthusiastic searching. He stopped to survey the damage, a slight frown etched upon his face. Well, he hadn't found his Zeus plugs, but he had found '_Ruminations on the Nature of the Antimatter Realms Contained Within Black Holes, and the Impact that has upon the Laws of Normal Physics, twelfth edition'_, a book he had lost about two hundred years back. However, that didn't help with his current problem, so he discarded it onto the floor where he would probably never find it among the mess he had created over the past half hour.

"Think, Doctor, where could they be?" he muttered to himself, wringing his floppy hat in a thoughtful kind of way. "What did I do before I came to the library?"

He stood in silence for a moment, then snapped his fingers.

"Of course," he cried. "I had a jellybaby in the kitchen." With another metaphorical picking up of the feet, he dashed for the kitchen.

When he arrived there, he first paused to have a jellybaby, as per his actions earlier that morning. That didn't help his search, so he set about tearing the kitchen apart in search of his beloved Zeus plugs, a piece of equipment almost as universal as a sonic screwdriver. Flour covered the dining table, eggs that were at least three years past their due by date made a quick bid for freedom, and various items of alien food decided that the ceiling was as good a place as any to make their home. It was only after the Doctor smashed nearly all of his crockery over the floor that he worked out that perhaps the object of his search was not in the kitchen.

Surveying the damage with a critical eye, the Doctor backed out of the room and closed the door, vowing to deny any link with this incident. He then conceded defeat, and went to find a friend.

"Sarah!" he called, striding casually down corridor after corridor, hands tucked in trouser pockets that had definitely seen better days. (The trousers, I mean, though the pockets probably aren't looking that good either. Full of bits of half-chewed gum and lint I would expect.) "Sarah? Have you by any chance seen my Zeus plugs? I would quite like them back, if you would be so kind?"

He received no reply, except for the gentle humming of the TARDIS, so he followed his nose towards Sarah-Jane's quarters. When he neared her bedroom, he heard someone singing from the bathroom, quite loudly and quite of tune, so he changed direction and made for that room instead. He found the door locked, with a fine misting of steam leaking out from underneath.

He slowly shook his head, and buzzed the lock with his sonic screwdriver. After that, the door swung open with ease. And, being the Doctor, he payed no attention to Sarah, who was in the shower, his eyes instead straying to what was sitting on the edge of the sink.

"My Zeus plugs!" the Doctor said ecstatically, leaping past the naked Sarah and picking up the elusive plugs he had been searching for all morning. With a contemptuous flick, he tucked his scarf safely over his shoulder, and lifted his Zeus plugs up to eye level.

The look of bliss on his face faded quickly as he stared in confusion at his Zeus plugs. "Hang on," he muttered to himself. "What did I need these for again?"

"Ah-hem."

It was then the Doctor first seemed to notice that Sarah was in the room with him, now wrapped in a bath towel, fortunately. The glare on her face scared even the normally stoic Time Lord.

"Ah," he said rather pointedly.

* * *

Harry Sullivan wandered down the TARDIS corridors, more than a bit lost and very very confused. He also felt a bit self-conscious, wrapped in a floral bathrobe as he was. He sincerely hoped he could find the bathroom before the Doctor found him. He would never hear the end of it then.

Sarah appeared from around the corner, adjusting a purple hat over slightly wet hair. Harry had barely enough time to force out a 'hello' before she shot into a rant about the state of the kitchen.

"This Doctor, I tell you," she finished, leaving Harry standing there, mouth open like a stunned mullet, "he really doesn't know what's good for him. Sometimes, I really want to strangle him."

"Ummm," Harry stuttered, unsure of how to respond to this change of character. Finally, he just squeaked out, "Do you know where to find the bathroom?"

She rolled her eyes and gave him a very elaborate set of instructions, then drew him a quick map on a piece of paper. She then stalked over, glowering and muttering about 'dumb Time Lords.'

With a shrug, Harry decided she wasn't a morning person, and followed the little pencil map scribbled on the piece of paper in his hands. To him, every passageway in this place looked like another, but he was learning, slowly. He reached the bathroom within a matter of minutes, and pushed the door open, whistling a merry tune. The little song trailed off when he saw who was in the bathroom.

The one and only Doctor appeared to be trussed up from the ceiling, and whoever had done it had used the Time Lord's scarf. He was gently swinging from side to side, knitted scarf suspending him upside down from the ceiling and keeping his arms to his sides.

"Sarah really isn't a morning person," the Doctor said with an awkward grin that was all teeth and curls. "Now, Harry, if you wouldn't mind getting me my jellybabies, they appear to have fallen out of my pocket, now there's a good lad."

Harry just goggled at him. "Oh I say."


End file.
